Laportea bulbifera - Bulbous Nettle

Bulbous Nettle is a perennial plant with stems often caespitose, slightly woody at base, 50-150 cm tall, upper stems often zigzagged, 5-angled, rarely branched, axils often with 1-3 woody bulbils, 3-6 mm in diameter; upper stems and leaf-stalks velvet-hairy and sparsely armed with stinging hairs, particularly at nodes. Leaves are whorled at stem tip or not. Leaf-stalk 1.5-10 cm; leaf blade light green below, lanceshaped to ovate or heart-shaped, sometimes round, 6-16 x 2.5-8 cm, papery, 3-veined, sparsely armed with stinging hairs, margin rounded toothed, toothed or sawtoothed, tip tapering. Male inflorescences arise in proximal axils, paniculate, 3-10 cm; female inflorescences at branch-ends or in branch-end axils, 10-25 cm, flower-cluster-stalk 3-10 cm, often with flowers along 1 side. Male flowers stalked or nearly stalkless, in bud about 1 mm; tepals 5, oblong-ovate, finely velvet-hairy. Female flowers: flower-stalk 2-4 mm, strongly laterally winged; tepals 4, almost free, strongly unequal. Achene are minutely purplish spotted, broadly obovoid or semiround, strongly compressed, 1.5-3 mm in diameter. Bulbous Nettle is found in the Himalayas and Tropical Asia. Flowering: June-August.